GEOGRAPHY: Plate Tectonics

Plate tectonics itself refers to the influence of plate formation, go awayment and death. The lithosphere come near is comprised of lithospheric plates which continually move. As they ar in motion they bump into other plates and have the lithosphere to buckle and warp. Plate tectonics then, is the theory that explains the destruction of an res publicaquake or the creation of new landforms in the character of volcanoes:

The earth's crust is altered by the constant forces resulting from plate movement. architectonic (generated from within the earth) forces shaping and reshaping the earth's crust are of 2 types: all diastrophe or volcanic. Diastrophism is the great pressure acting on the plates that deforms the surface by folding, twisting, warping, breaking, or compressing rock. Volcanism is the force that transports heated corporeal toward the surface of the earth. When particular places on the continent are downstairs pressure, the changes that take place can be as uncomplicated as the cracking of rock or as hammy as lava exploding from the crate and sides of Mount St. Helens.

In the 1960s, scientists defined and find twelve tectonic plates which are rigid in record and move in relationship to each other. Earthquakes and volcanoes are two good sources that help scientists identify the borders of these plates. Glaciers are also an beta piece of natural evidence that helps support the continental draw theory and plate tecto

nics. At the same blockage in the past, South America, Africa, India and Australia were partly or totally cover with glaciers. This is significant because at that time period in the geographical past, scientists have no evidence of diametric activity in the northern hemisphere during the time these lands were covered with glaciers.

Glaciers form when they deposit the debris they have been carrying but internal-combustion engine ages were last known during the Pleistocene period. However, because of global warming a new ice age is non an impossibility and this is nonpareil reason why plate tectonics and the environment are crucial to human understanding of how we affect the environment, "For the first half(prenominal) of this century, the world's glaciers were warminging faster than they were building up. Current trends are not clear, although the fear is apparent that the greenhouse effect is warming the earth and will case the seas to rise" (Getis et al 88).

The movement of lithospheric plates is basically continental drift. Scientists theorize this is caused because of radioactive decay which occurs in the burden and mantle. This radiates heat which transforms into convection currents which serve to push the plates in motion. When there is a collision between plates, the ones that are heavier and more dense move beneath the lighter and less dense plates. When the heavier layers move they melt and molte
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